GABE (Silicon Valley Billionaires 2)

Now the two people I loved most in the world were in danger. I swallowed hard, gripping the marble island. I looked over at Timmy, who was watching me warily. “We should go there. I need to make sure they’re okay.”

Timmy shook his head. “We can’t, and you know it.” He motioned for me to sit. He came to the screen and cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”

The two men in front of the surveillance feed turned around.

“Can you make sure we can see the screens? Ms. Taylor’s very worried about her sister, and Mr. Betts too.”

Nodding, they arranged the laptop so I had a perfect view of the feed. I hoped I wouldn’t see anything terrible. My head was pounding, I felt sick, and my hands were coated in a sheen of sweat. Gabe, what are you doing? Gabe wanted to save Hannah, and he wanted to prove something. I wasn’t sure if it was to me, his brothers, his father, or himself. I clenched my hands into fists.

I was going to kill him…if he ever came back to me.

I held my breath and watched the feed. Nothing appeared except for the driveway, the door, and the roof, on an endless, mind-numbing loop.

After what seemed like forever, something happened in the video feed. The garage door opened. A white SUV began backing out.

“We’ve got movement,” one of the guards said into his mouthpiece. He appeared to listen intently. “Copy that, Team A. Proceed.”

But nothing happened. The car kept backing out. Is Hannah inside? I waited, biting the inside of my cheek in order to keep from screaming. Is Gabe out there, somewhere? I watched as the car started to ease out onto the road.

And then it stopped.

There was no sound attached to the screens. “What’s happening?” I asked the remaining guards, no longer caring if I was interfering or being a pain in the ass. That was Hannah out there. And Gabe, damn him.

The man shook his head and motioned for me to wait, not turning around. He listened for another beat, his brow furrowed. “Fuck,” he said to the other guard.

“Fuck what?” I asked. I felt as if I were going to jump out of my skin.

And then, suddenly, I knew what the “fuck” was for. In the video feed, Gabe stormed across the tiny lawn of the house, holding a gun and shooting at the driver’s side of the car. I watched as he pulled the driver out through the broken window and threw him to the ground. I couldn’t tell if the man was alive or not. Gabe didn’t seem to care—he crouched down and aimed his gun at whoever was in the passenger seat.

I gripped Timmy’s arm. “Oh my God.”

Ash and several other men swarmed the car. I saw them pull Hannah out of the back. All I caught was a flash of her long hair before she was yanked out of the frame.

Then I saw Gabe shooting at someone else.

And then the screen went blank. “Surveillance is down,” one of the men called.

I shut my eyes tightly as the image of Gabe in the middle of that chaos, shooting people, seared itself permanently onto my brain.

A minute went by with the guards murmuring to themselves and checking the equipment. “Wait, I’ve got Ash on the line,” one of them said.

My heart pounded painfully as he listened. “Good news,” he said, finally looking back at me through the screen. “That was clean. Even if it didn’t go according to plan.”

The guards in the room started clapping, but I couldn’t even catch my breath.

“Right. Let’s get going. We need to pack up and clear out.” The guard smiled at me. “Ms. Taylor, Gabriel’s okay. And they got your sister out. Ash said she’s fine—she didn’t get hurt just now.”

My hands were clenched into fists, my nails digging into my palms. “Are you sure Gabe didn’t get shot?”

“Not yet,” the guard said. “But Levi might shoot him for pulling that back there.”

“Ms. Taylor,” Timmy said, clicking off his phone. “They’re leaving the scene, but we need to move. Ash is already headed to San Francisco.”

“O-okay.” I licked my lips, which had gone dry. “Is Hannah really okay?”

Timmy nodded, smiling for the first time in what seemed like months. “She is, and so is Mr. Betts.”

“I’ll call them from the car.” I gathered all my paperwork together and my computer, feeling disoriented. Hannah is okay. They have Hannah, and she’s coming home.